Amanda Knox: One of Three Suspects in Meredith Kercher Murder - Associated Content

Amanda Knox: One of Three Suspects in Meredith Kercher Murder - Associated ContentCertain cases stand out in the annals of crime for various reasons. This one stands out because of:

1. It happened in Italy. You can compare police procedures in a foreign country.
2. It happened to a British schoolgirl, and has overtones of sex and drugs.
3. The pathetic stupidity of it all.

Is There a Real Reverend Michael Fleger?

Wow, Reverend Fleger!... You can really "get down." You spittin' it, homeboy! We 'preciate u be tellin' how u roll.

At Obama’s Church, Chicago Minister Says Clinton Felt ‘White’ Entitlement - America’s Election HQ

At Obama’s Church, Chicago Minister Says Clinton Felt ‘White’ Entitlement - America’s Election HQ

Meet Rev. Fleger: White Man Speaks With Forked Tongue

Barack Obama continues to have preacher problems and this time he acted quickly to condemn Reverend Michael Fleger in his mocking damnation of Hillary Clinton. America only wishes it hadn't taken him 25 years to condemn Jeremiah's racist jeremiads.

I think Fleger can be forgiven because he has a language problem though. You've probably already seen Fleger demolish himself in the low, banal, and insulting speech he gave to an African-American audience in Chicago. In that one, he adopts the familiar, patronizing, avuncular tone of a whiteboy speaking what he no doubt believes is "Black English." (What would the Barackians say if Condoleeza Rice addressed a South Side Chicago group in those tones, accents, and emphatics?)

Yet, here he is speaking his regular version (and being himself) of English to a reporter. Is Fleger worried that African-Americans won't like him if he acts like himself instead of the religious phony he pretended to be with the African American audience? Be yourself, Reverend, don't pander. You can express your empathy for the plight of poor African-Americans and other communities without doing your TV Catholic Envangelist Hip-Hop version of a reverse StepandFetchit character.

MSNBC Dogs: Mika Brezinski, Dan Abrams, and Keith Olbermann

Pinch-faced Keith Olbermann has this lame segment on his “show” where he runs down a ranking list of the “worst people in the world.” You will find there anyone who’s ever been positioned even slightly to the right of Chairman Mao, which includes most people in the Bush administration. So you get this tired parade of the same characters, with Olbermann trying desperately to dredge up what is positively a moribund sense of humor, and you imagine all these people of low intellect with superior attitudes guffawing at his lame “humor” while eating TV dinners. I’ll admit I’m perverse in watching it, but I don’t really. I just switch over to the MSNBC (The Obama Channel) for laughs because I wonder that the MSNBC general manager, Dan Abrams, let’s the carnage go on.

Abram’s has his own version of “Ten Worst List” and he calls it “Beat the Press” or something like that. Dan Abrams is a self-harmer, you know, and his chief contributions as GM has been to add these tasteless cartoon graphics intended to attract a “young audience.” I volunteer with a “young audience” two nights a week at a boxing gym, and I can tell you they’re not watching Keith Olbermann nor Dan Abrams. I suppose the “young audience” they’re looking for are “disaffected” dopers, dunces, and dropouts from society driving from one Starbuck’s to another in the Volvos they received as high school graduation gifts.

But I’d like to produce Oberman’s show for just one day. I could do the entire “Ten Worst” list just from watching the “Morning Joe” show while head honcho Joe Scarborough is out on a protracted family leave. The show has two good points. Point One is Joe Scarborough but he’s been gone for a long time and the ratings are dropping through the floor. Point Two is Pat Buchanan, who is always good for some realpolitik insight and some laughs. It’s a good paid gig for Buchanan, and he and Scarborough are there to buttress the stations “fairness” doctrines. But Mika Brezinski is the Ten Worst all rolled into one. Her timing is bad and her attempts are humor are so inept as to force pal Willie Geist to frown against his will. They trot out Boston Globe editor Mike Barnacle to give us the outlook from one of the two Gay Marriage States (should that be capitalized?). Barnacle’s jowly face smiles too much, shoving the knife into the Republicans with a gleeful Brutus’ treachery.

Brezinski’s father is the former Jimmy Carter security advisor (contradiction in terms, I know) and now shills for Obama. Without Scarborough at the lead, the show is preposterously confusing, rudderless, directionless, humorless, feckless, and consistently dull. Mika and Willie Geist dully read the newspaper headlines to you. Mika’s not bad looking but any positive benefit derived from that is still-born as she peevishly attacks Hillary Clinton or any Republican. She seems a hurting person, and her quips are ill-timed and inane, as if she were copying one of those television shows broadcast on the internet from someone’s cluttered basement.

Oh, it’s bad without Scarborough. Abrams should be fired and the station sold to Murdoch. Mika Brezinski should take her bony ass out of there to join daddy on the Obama campaign trail.

NJ Governor Jon Corzine on Fox Business Channel

NJ Democratic Governor Jon Corzine visited the Fox Business Channel this morning and he wasn’t turned to salt. Aside from making use of executive privilege in the reckless driving area, Corzine is one of those Democrats you could live with if you had to. He’s a Hillary Clinton supporter, and I would guess that’s because he doesn’t so much appreciate the lunatic fringe which has come to dominate Democratic party politics. That’s been an increasing tendency, even before the Bill Clinton administration. Clinton temporarily halted its march with its largely centrist coalitions. But right now, the Fringe is firmly in control, alienating those who would govern more broadly.


Corzine said it would be stupid to hamstring the economy by tax increases at a time when the economy is struggling. That’s what Obama supporters want to do. Manipulating people and playing upon resentments might get you the vote, but it is a tremendous disservice to the country. Barack Obama’s next book should be titled: “How to Make A Tough Economic Situation Worse.” Corzine should know a little something about the economy. He made lots of money during his years with investment firm Goldman-Sachs, and you don’t succeed at that without knowing a bit about economics. Obama must have learned about economics at Harvard, too. Marxist economics, no doubt.

Corzine also commented on the Michigan and Florida disenfranchisement of the vote. Remember how he recently teamed up with Charlie Crist and another Democrat to fund a revote. The Obama leaning DNC turned up its nose. Now it’s too late for a revote, says Corzine. Corzine also pointed out that Florida had both Hillary Clinton and Obama on the ticket , and there was no reason not to count that vote. The lunatic fringe is fond of repeating the trope that “rules are rules,” but they are really fond of coloring outside the lines when it suits them. Corzine correctly points out that Florida Republicans were the ones who changed the primary rules (for their own purposes). The DNC decided to put new “rules” in place about six months later. Did they not know that Florida would vote so heavily for Hillary Clinton?

Europeans Protest Fuel Taxes But Accept High Prices - WSJ.com

Europeans Protest Fuel Taxes But Accept High Prices - WSJ.comI guess we don't have it so bad. Europeans are paying $9.00 per gallon even with the strong euro. In Britain, which does not have the euro, people are also bitching about the high petrol prices. Gordon Brown told the British they had in place a plan to put more nukes on line. That couldn't happen here. The Democratic controlled congress stops it, just as they stop offshore oil drilling, just as they stop any attempts by Americans to help themselves in the wake of wild speculation in the markets and price monolopy from our friends in the OPEC cartel.

Potomac Watch - WSJ.com: In Case You Missed It

Potomac Watch - WSJ.comKim Strassel's one of my favorite brainiacs. Check out this column from a week ago.

Today in Investor's Business Daily stock analysis and business news

Today in Investor's Business Daily stock analysis and business newsThis isn't the first time Cindy McCain is proud of her country. Someone sent me this story from Investor's Business Daily, and I'm putting it up to thwart the snide insinuations of the latte and birkenstock set who support peace at any price. The McCain's don't just talk the talk, as any student of history will know. Click on the title line and read the story. It's a good one.

McCain invites Obama to Iraq | The Australian

McCain invites Obama to Iraq | The AustralianMore failures by the effete liberal media require that I read Australian newspapers now. This is an important story because it has parallels with the Vietnam war, in that the politicians declared surrender at the time of greatest military success. General Giap, North Vietnam's greatest general, said that his army was about to collapse and the only thing that saved them was an American contingent of anti-war pacifists allied with a self-aggrandizing media. Isn't that what's happening in Iraq with Obama, pacifist pied piper who didn't feel that military service should be an important milestone in a career of public service? Al Qaeda is hurting in Iraq and those irresponsible people who think it is more important to "hate Bush" have already provided enough comfort to the enemy. The terrorists in Iraq need more pressure, not less, and there is evidence that the Iraqi Army is providing it.

Meanwhile, Obama needs to visit Iraq to see what's really going on there instead of the self-congratulating fantasy he has in his head. It was a grand gesture for Senator McCain to invite Obama to Iraq with him and to share his experience and insights with a potential rival. However, the snotty one-term Senator from Illinois followed Axelrod's scripted repartee and implied he was so overwhelmed with patriotism on Memorial Day that he couldn't think of anything else.

So click on the headline here and read the Australian newspaper which carried the story. Apparently, the anemia which has afflicted the New York Times and other newspapers hasn't infected that continent as it has our own.

Obama Lectures Congress on Military Duty

Promise people everything and anything seems to be Senator Obama's strategy for getting himself elected. In B.O's latest vote-buying scheme, he advocates for another generous veteran benefit which is designed to decimate the ranks of the military at a time when we need them the most. Obama doesn't care, though; he is desperate to find a way to appeal to veterans without serving in the military himself. And then, he tries to engage Senator McCain in some stupid and lame manoeuver in which he says that McCain doesn't feel for our veterans as deeply and as nobly as he does. What a crock! Not even a bad lawyer would try a lame tactic like that. McCain seemed amused by Obama's comment when he fired back with a mild but very accurate jab:

I will not accept from Sen. Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did.

So that's how I found out that Obama didn't ever go into the military at all! That's something I should have known but scarcely gave any thought to. I just very simply and naively believed that would-be presidents would at least have some personal experience with service to country. My assumptions were, of course, way off course with regard to Obama. I assumed that a guy who expressed so many opinions of the military, of what it should do, and where it should go, would naturally have a great deal of experience in this area. I'm still shaking my head. It's Memorial Day, and I'm thinking of all the brave men and women who gave of themselves because they love freedom, and not because it would afford Barack Obama the opportunity to buy their votes.

In Pennsylvania, Rising Residential Real Estate Taxes Bust School Budgets - Associated Content

In Pennsylvania, Rising Residential Real Estate Taxes Bust School Budgets - Associated Content

McCain Rejects Pastor's Support - WSJ.com

McCain Rejects Pastor's Support - WSJ.comWhile I've been a perfectly straight arrow for decades, there was a time in my own life when I was reckless, destructive, and disrespectful of all authority. I wish I had seen more clearly--I wasted a lot of time which could have been used far more productively. As the result of that early run on the dark side, I wish to announce that I have decided not to run for president. I would have too many things to lie about, and it's quite likely that I have forgotten some, and would therefore be easily caught. I also wish to denounce all the horrid things said and done by my friends and acquaintances, including what they may say in the future. Now, with a clear conscience, I will absent myself from public life.

Spike Lee accuses Clint Eastwood of erasing black GIs from history - Times Online

Spike Lee accuses Clint Eastwood of erasing black GIs from history - Times Online

Operation in Sadr City Is an Iraqi Success, So Far - New York Times

Operation in Sadr City Is an Iraqi Success, So Far - New York Times

Operation in Sadr City Is an Iraqi Success, So Far - New York Times

Operation in Sadr City Is an Iraqi Success, So Far - New York Times

Operation in Sadr City Is an Iraqi Success, So Far - New York Times

Operation in Sadr City Is an Iraqi Success, So Far - New York Times

Moscow's Stray Dogs

Barack Obama: Appeasement is About Me!

I think it was lucky that Obama plays the victim so well that he took it upon himself to claim he was the subject of the President’s recent “appeasement remarks.”

The President might have been referring to the three Democratic congress members who went to Iraq prior to the Iraq war on a trip financed by Saddam Hussein.

The President might have been referring to Dem Congressman Dennis Kucinich and his trip to Syria.

The President might have been referring to Jimmy Carter and his recent Middle East meeting with Hamas leadership, no doubt conceived to pave the way for Obama and his anti-Israel followers.

The President could have been referring to Columbia University’s president who last year hosted a visit by Ahmadinajad.

But it could also apply to Barack Obama in light of Obama’s statements that he wanted to meet and talk with Iran even while the regime provides training, supplies, and equipment to hostile forces killing our soldiers. This is no longer an Obama charm offensive. Could Obama really want this fight with the President when his associations with radical left preacher and Farrakahn friend Jeremiah Wright has undermined Obama’s declaration that he is indeed a friend of traditional American ally Israel?

Obama Owes His Rise to Lobbyists

We get by with a little help from our friends. On the right is Antoin Rezko, indicted in Chicago for public corruption.


Obama has not dismissed people who are lobbyists and has no rules vetting lobbyists who are in his camp. Though Obama owes his rise in Illinois politics to financial and other support from lobbyists and PACs, Obama continues to assert his “new” approach to the influence in Washington of special interests.

Wal-mart, British Petroleum, and Lockheed Martin lobbyists provided payments to the Obama political campaigns in the past, according to public documents.

According to Jen Psaki, Obama campaign spokeswoman, Obama decided to announce a change to a “new” approach in the presidential campaign. As things stand, Obama has not yet rooted out lobbyists in his campaign nor made rules which preclude their participation as John McCain has done.

The Boston Globe reports the following:


Obama's campaign finance records shows that he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs as a state legislator in Illinois, a US senator, and a presidential aspirant.
In Obama's eight years in the Illinois Senate, from 1996 to 2004, almost two-thirds of the money he raised for his campaigns -- $296,000 of $461,000 -- came from PACs, corporate contributions, or unions, according to Illinois Board of Elections records. He tapped financial services firms, real estate developers, healthcare providers, oil companies, and many other corporate interests, the records show.

Obama's US Senate campaign committee, starting with his successful run in 2004, has collected $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. His $1.3 million from PACs represents 8 percent of what he has raised overall.

In addition, Obama's own federal PAC, Hopefund, took in $115,000 from 56 PACs in the 2005-2006 election cycle out of $4.4 million the PAC raised, according to CQ MoneyLine, which collects Federal Election Commission data. Obama then used those PAC contributions -- including thousands from defense contractors, law firms, and the securities and insurance industries -- to build support for his presidential run by making donations to Democratic Party organizations and candidates around the country.


That was then, and this is now. Again, the voters must rely on Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki to clarify the “new” approach by Mr. Hope and Change. After going to Washington, she says, Obama was shocked, shocked, completely shocked after seeing the influence of lobbyists first-hand during his three years in Washington. Barack Obama’s politico-religious conversion quickly ensued.

Clinton closing in Oregon polls - 2008 Presidential Campaign Blog - Political Intelligence - Boston.com

Clinton closing in Oregon polls - 2008 Presidential Campaign Blog - Political Intelligence - Boston.com

Obama Super-Diplomacy Captivates Ahmadinajad

Iranian President Ahmadinejad sure has a way with words. The fanatical terrorist leader of Iran continues a torrent of rabid Nazi rhetoric against Israel in calling the Jewish state "a dirty microbe," "a wild animal" and "the West's scarecrow". More recently, as John McCain pointed out, he called Israel a “stinking corpse.”

It’s a good time for Baraka Obama to make good on his Hope and Change foreign policy designed to bring rogue nations into line by talking with their leaders. While Obama often describes himself as a friend to "our ally" Israel, Obama is as silent on the Iranian president’s pronouncements as he was while listening to Reverend Wright telling his congregation how white people implanted AIDS in Africa and how 9-11 was a revenge killing of U.S. civilians by G-O-D.

Television channels report how Obama has suddenly turned to wearing a flag pin to connect with American patriots across the country. I would accept that as an improvement, in spite of its obvious political convenience. Yet, Obama feels that something would be gained by shaking hands with the people who seized American hostages and held them for 444 days. Appeasing the Islamo-fascists in Iran with conciliatory rhetoric would be just the ticket, according to Obama and his supporters. It would make everyone feel good, and when people feel good, great changes can be accomplished. So goes the thinking of Obama and his advisors. But if that were true, as someone said, then Dr. Phil would take the place of Dr. Spock as leading foreign policy advisor. Perhaps, he has and we haven’t been told.

Obama’s Gun Control Utopia

Among the things John McCain has going for him is that he’s not a lawyer, never been a lawyer, and doesn’t want to become a lawyer. Not so for the other two candidates.

William Shakespeare was once asked how he’d go about creating a Utopia. The first thing you’d need to do, said Shakespeare, is to kill off all the lawyers. It’s no secret that the Great Bard had considerable legal troubles and had grown weary of their nattering, though necessary, presences.

The Doctor of Jurisprudence has been known to hybridize the truth of things, making facts unknowable, or at least mildly suspect. Presidents must have Attorneys General among their cabinet members and it’s something that Hillary must have had daydreams about at Wellesley. Obama must have had similar reveries in Harvard Yard. It’s doubtful that John McCain gave it hardly at thought in those two great universities he attended, Annapolis and the Hanoi Hilton. However, it seems that each of the candidates has their pet legal crusades:

John McCain has so far proposed going after online predators and child pornography, initiatives favored by the Bush administration. McCain has, however, vowed to add human traffickers to that list. McCain’s reportedly had talks with Senator Sam Brownback and former Attorney General William Barr. John McCain has a perfect record with the NRA except for his support of background checks at gun shows.

Hillary Clinton revived her husband’s initiative of putting more cops on the street. This is, in some sense, realistic and cash strapped communities across the country were glad of the financial and moral support.

Barack Obama is a vehement proponent of strict gun control and that is not news…Obama supports extending the assault weapons ban, limits on gun sales, and a national law against carrying concealed weapons. Obama recently told voters that they “had nothing to fear from me” if all they wanted to do is go hunting or protect their families in the home.

Translation:

• Obama would restore the so-called assault weapons ban which applies to rifles which are not really assault weapons.

• Obama would impose radical new restrictions on handgun ownership in defiance of 2nd Amendment rights.

• Obama would empower his left-liberal lawyer friends to sue gun-manufacturers, gun store owners, and individuals who transfer ownership of guns to others.

What’s the meaning of all this? Actually, it’s a sort of pablum for the masses, the same stuff he’s been feeding voters since day one. In one recent week in his home turf of Chicago, 30 people were killed, some of them with guns. Chicago is where Obama was a so-called “community organizer.” So far as I can tell, that means he was a lawyer for the housing authority, a role that needs great embellishment. Apparently, Obama couldn’t organize people enough to commit to a real solution which is to stop killing or beating upon each other, to get an education, to stay out of the gangs that have long plagued Chicago.

A rigid gun-control agenda is Obama’s excuse, his cover, his pennant, his panacea for all the failures of the Cook County Chicago entrenched white-collar mob which gave us Antoin Rezko and Governor Blago-whatever.

Some Same Sex Marriage Suggestions

I was very pleased to hear that the California Supreme Court issued a mandate to legalize same sex marriages. It’s about time that California emerged from the Dark Ages of Unrequited Love. Ellen DeGeneres joyously announced she would soon marry her significant other in a California ceremony.

In light of this enlightened ruling, a Same-Sex Marriage Cupid should have high hopes of uniting those whom the old-fashioned marrying laws kept apart. In the interest of “hope and change”, we must acknowledge:

Certainly, the world would approve of a marriage between Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann; the two are evenly matched in wit, word, and political tilt, and are often seen smiling together and complimenting each other on the Obama Channel.

I don’t think it would be far-fetched to bring Bill Maurer together with Jon Stewart. Just think of the laughs the two would get if they appeared together as spouse-and-spouse on the Comedy Channel. The two men are appropriately matched intellectually, too, favoring a glib liberalism of style to hide an apparent lack of depth.

On the other side of the Gender Gap, I think Kelly O’Donnell would make a nice catch for Mika Brezinski. Kelly’s chuckling delivery and winsome cackling, as she recounts the day’s disasters, would contrast well with Brezinski’s somber and morose uptightness, an attitude often punctuated by a forced smile or a clumsy repartee to nemesis Joe Scarborough. Kelly obviously enjoys the soft, feminine role so the bony, sharper-edged and snarky Mika could easily snuggle into the softer pscho-folds of perfect soul-mate Kelly O’Donnell.

Frankly, I’m at a loss to know who would make Christiane Amanpour a happy mate. The worldly and well-traveled reporter has a head on her shoulders, liberal or not, and is not content to sit at home baking cookies. Andrea Mitchell occurred to me; Andrea would be suitably matched with homogeneic political credentials.

Andrea, however, might be far too dull for Ms. Amanpour, though the dynamic and playful former Fed Chairman with whom she cohabits would slyly say otherwise. That leaves(possibly, I say) Barbara Walters. I think the match with an older woman would ‘settle’ the younger one and add much needed zest to the life of the other. Oftentimes Barbara shows different aspects of herself, though; there is the Mercurial Barbara, the Consoler Barbara, the Empathizer Barbara, the Insightful Barbara, and, most appealing of all, the Sang-Froid Barbara. It is that last which would most excite Christian Amanpour, who desperately wants to be dominated but has not yet met her match in persistence, and so has not yet revealed to anyone her feminine vulnerabilities.

So you see, there is nothing to fear from same-sex marriages. We have no right to prevent such joyful unions as those entertained above. It is a good thing for solitary and furtive souls to find satisfaction in sameness and sexo-socio-cultural homogeneity. We must help these people to find marital bliss.

Give Up Some Love for Larry Holmes, Heavyweight World Champ

Swindon news, information, leisure, sport, classifieds from the Swindon Advertiser Larry Holmes lived and boxed in the era when the heavyweight division of boxing was thick with talent. With great heart and a pulverizing left jab, Holmes remains one of the premier boxers of the era between Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. Click on the headline to read the story from a British newspaper.

McCain Courts Gun Owners, Criticizes Dems at NRA Meeting - America’s Election HQ

McCain Courts Gun Owners, Criticizes Dems at NRA Meeting - America’s Election HQ Obama is a synonym for a National Gun Control Law that would prohibit concealed carry. Left-wing lawyer Obama interprets 'concealed carry' to mean anywhere. An Obama presidency would mean a full-frontal assault on the 2nd Amendment and the individual citizens right to protect self and family while making things easy for criminals who do not obey gun control laws.

Republicans Go to War With Obama Over Foreign Policy Views - America’s Election HQ#comment-363652

Republicans Go to War With Obama Over Foreign Policy Views - America’s Election HQ#comment-363652 Starry-eyes Democrats once again show their naivete in offering encouragement to America's enemies.

The Big Oil Scapegoat (The Enemy is Us)

These petrol price photos, recently taken, are already outdated, old news...


Just about every high-schooler in America should be able to recite several reasons for high oil prices. We’ve heard the trope often enough.

• Increasing demand from China and India.

• Geopolitical unrest in places like Nigeria and Venezuela.

• Decline in dollar value against other currencies.

• OPEC cartel hostility to the U.S. and concomitant price-fixing or other monopolistic practices.

• Speculation in the commodities markets.

One is supposed to say “Big Oil Company Greed”, too, but that pejorative confuses the issue. Aren’t we all trying to make as much money as possible? We only pull out the term “greed” when we’re referring to the other guy. To describe our own acquisitiveness, we contrive different concepts: frugality, compensation, incentive, merit pay, financial rewards for meritorious service, and so on.

The “Big Oil” scapegoat is handy, though illusory. Big Oil (and other energy conglomerates) has stockholders and those stockholders expect you to make money. I don’t know how many people in America own oil company stocks but you can bet there are plenty. You can bet also that the complaints of high petrol prices are somewhat muted in the households of the millions of people who have little pieces of the “Big Oil” pie.

There’s a smart guy named James Stewart who writes a column for the Wall Street Journal and Smart Money magazine. All praise to Mr. Stewart for being so candid in describing (for the reader’s benefit) how the speculative process works. A recent column was titled “Old Oil Rules Don’t Work.” Stewart buys oil stocks outright but he also engages in the risky business of options trading. He’s representative of a lot of other smart people who bought into “Big Oil” and, with the rising prices, it was hard to lose money. For people like Mr. Stewart, the worry was not of losing money, but of earning more or less of it.

Stewart gives the example of selling options “calls” on oil and having to buy the calls back in order to keep the stock--which was trending significantly higher. That’s a process which, in Stewart’s calculation, incurred a minor loss for a larger gain.

Stewart acknowledges no particular genius in the trading of stocks, although it must be mentioned that successful options traders are a rather select group. Police officers, teachers, small business people, preachers, and postal workers, people from all walks of life, have bought into an profited from the activities of Big Oil. In some cases, the strongest critics of “Big Oil” are the unknowing beneficiaries of oil price increases through the investments of their pension funds.

It is impossible to know exactly to what degree speculation and investment fuels the price of oil, but it is safe to say it is a significant factor. It is also safe to say that “Big Oil” is not the only entity which profits from rising oil prices. In fact, it’s kind of provincial to beat one’s chest and prate about “Big Oil” when so many other factors are involved besides the churlish Obamaesque pejorative of “corporate greed.”

Liberal Democrats in Tight Squeak, Squeaky Shoes

It looks like Ahmadinajad, walks like him, and talks like him....

You wonder why there's such whining today from the Obama camp followers like Tom Roehmer, John Kerry et al....

Didn't Jimmy Carter just return from an unofficial and reckless mission of appeasement and conciliation in the Middle East? So why is the Obama camp so much on the defensive? The president criticized a congressmen who, in the years leading up to U.S. involvement in WWII, felt he could have smoothed Hitler's feathers with a huff and a puff and some other rhetorical flourishes. Certainly, the president was trying to be "inclusive" in elaborating a very hardline approach toward America's enemies. Obviously, Obama feels singled out. If so, he's got a great soapbox--why doesn't he climb up upon it and tell us what he really thinks instead of sending out his minions, mandarins, and fellow surrender monkeys?

Not all Americans want to declare surrender and turn the Middle East over to Islamo-nazis. Moderates can hardly raise a whisper in that part of the world without getting their heads cut off.

President Bush"s "Appeasement" Remarks

There are many who believe that Iran's president seized U.S. hostages during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis while Jimmy Carter was president. That's Iran's president on the right. Some say the kidnapper-gunman on the left is him, too.



President Bush made some remarks about politicians who would try to placate or appease Middle Eastern despots. The prez did not mention Barack Obama by name and could just as easily have been referring to Jimmy Carter. However, there's no denying the Barackians are highly defensive on the foreign policy issues of the day

The Obama campaign now has its panties in a bunch over the President’s remarks. It’s strange and misguided that Obama has his communications director, Robert Gibbs, out in front as point man to refute the president’s words and launch a counter-argument. This is the kind of thing Obama should articulate himself. Obviously, a growing fear in the Obama campaign is that their candidate cannot speak “off-the-cuff” and without a script. Why would they put their communications director out there?

The public needs to know who Barack Obama is. The strategy of expressing third-hand views allows Obama to disavow or add to his communication director’s statement ex-post-facto. Obama has consistently engaged in this kind of manipulation. Voters need to know that Obama can stake out his own positions and speak from the heart. Having others stake out or attack political positions is the cheapest of political tactics from a Senator who presents himself as a “change agent.”

Like many other Americans who support U.S. efforts in the Middle East, Jewish voters are deeply suspicious of Senator Obama’s remarks on negotiations with Hamas and Hizbollah, terrorist organizations funded and supported by Iran and Syria.

Who's a Racist?

It's completely weird how Americans go around accusing each other of racism. Racism is a pretty serious accusation, yet it's tossed around loosely, irresponsibly, recklessly, and with great vigor. Here's a quote from the London Times of Andrew Sullivan, openly gay Catholic conservative writer who lives in Britain:

"

In last Tuesday's North Carolina primary, [Hillary] Clinton got only 7% of the black vote -- a lower percentage than Nixon or Reagan had won in general elections.... No constituency has swung as much over the past few months. The Clintons are used to loving and supporting minorities -- as long as the minorities know their place and see the Clintons as the instrument of their salvation. Obama broke that dependency and that relationship. And that was why the Clintons had to do all they could to destroy and belittle and besmirch him. But in that venture the Clintons are destroying themselves and their legacy and their capacity to bridge the very gaps they now must widen to stay in the race. It is a Clinton tragedy -- and one that most Americans seem slowly, cautiously but palpably determined not to make their own"

It's kind of reminiscent of the old days when everyone went around accusing everybody else of being "faggots." You'd think people would learn. Is there some sort of litmus test for racism? Is racism confined to a single cultural or ethnic group? Is there a court somewhere where one judges?

Racism is a violation of civil rights law, as it should be. That means discriminating in employment and other vital areas. The term may also apply to one's feelings and thoughts but that is getting into dangerous areas. White people go around accusing other white people of being racist as if they are society's judges. I have been accused of racism because I don't trust Barack Obama and think he is a poor candidate. People don't have to like me because I'm 'white' (actually, kind of gray or tan). People don't have to like you because you're black (actually kind of tan and yellow or brown and white). What they can't do is discriminate against you under the law. But making these ridiculous and shaky charges of racism based on very flimsy premises is destructive and improves nothing. It's preposterous.

Democratic Party on Suicide Watch: Hillary Sets Records in WV

Deep inside, there's a fighter struggling to get out...

“The White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning the swing states,” said Hillary Clinton.

Props to Hillary Clinton and her supporters, too, for setting historical records with her trouncing of rival BHO in West Virginia. The numbers are positively astounding and, with 100 percent of the vote in, 67% of the voters went for Hillary Clinton with only 26% for Obama. This is in spite of the Obama camp free-spending on television ads at his usual rate. There’s no doubt the Big Money is behind Obama and his campaign has no spending limits. But this makes Obama’s loss stand out even more, and the Obama camp, the delegates, and the Obama cheerleaders in the Democratic Party can no longer hide from themselves the fact that they have a serious problem.

The media’s been really cute about all of this, as usual, expressing a view that is at once absurd and complex. The Obama Channel (MSNBC, with the exception of Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan) is representative of the media viewpoint.

“Barack Obama transcends race,” the media line goes, but “there’s no denying that race is an issue in this campaign.”

WTF? You have to understand that the MSM is primarily a business. As such, it must follow prevailing market trends, established in this case by professional Democratic Party hacks who, after many years out of the White House, are so full of power-lust that they once again fell in love with the first candidate showing a meteoric trend spike.

No one could say for sure that Iowa would vote the same way it did after the Reverend Wright story broke, yet Obama’s people (who don’t play the race game) continue to point out strong support “among whites.”

Don’t forget that Iowa is a caucus state, as are most of the states where Obama had a strong showing. Who has it in themselves to go to a caucus? (especially in winter) College students did, but one wonders if it would be the same on a replay. After all, college students not immune to the offense offered by Reverend Wright’s vitriol. The other consistent attendees at caucuses were Obama’ hardcore supporters—and everyone has them—brought to caucus with a well-funded organization. Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and Minnesota were also caucus states which went for Obama and some of those are most unlikely to go for him in a general election this year.

No, it does seem that Hillary Hating has backfired, partly for the reason that the MSM has anointed Obama, and partly because it is a tired trope. Even the dullest person can see that Hillary, slow out of the blocks, has been stronger, tougher, and more resilient that anyone could have imagined. She radiated in West Virginia, as she radiated in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and elsewhere. Hillary’s fans may not “swoon” as Obama’s fans are reported to have done, but their love for Hillary is constant, genuine, and deeply rooted in vital issues.

So while you’re doing the “delegate math” and following the bouncing rubble ball the MSM wants you to follow, don’t forget the outdated caucus system which benefited Obama in the following states:


Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nevada, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, Wyoming, & Texas***. )Texas has both a primary and a caucus).

Democrats Say They Still Want Hillary in the Race - America’s Election HQ

Democrats Say They Still Want Hillary in the Race - America’s Election HQDemocrats Say They Still Want Hillary in the Race - America’s Election HQ from the Fox News Network.

Hillary Clinton's projected win in West Virginia highlights the weaknesses in the Obama camp. Hillary has better developed ideas, more experience, a better record. But she doesn't have that great stentorian voice and that Reverend Wright church phraseology.

Ingenious Pandering Scheme or Housing Bailout Plan?

Buy It! No Down Payment Required....



Democrats have developed an ingenious pandering scheme to rival all others in their Reckless Homeowner Bailout Plan. Of course, all great schemes of such magnitude arise from recognition of prevailing sentiment. A recognition of prevailing sentiment, or resentment in this case, is a great manipulative tool in the wrong hands. The wrong hands, in this case, are those of Barney Frank.

Barney’s heart may be in the right place but his mind is certainly on getting Democratic voters to the polls. The excuse used by FrankenDodd and Co. is that “Well, the government bailed out Bear-Stearns, didn’t they?”

Yeah, true, and now I almost wish that it didn’t because an large-scale economic collapse of the banking system would have launched a platoon of Democratic party wind-up demagogues, all screaming and whining in unison, a nutcracker suite of Rescue Dolls marching across the landscape to save No-Money-Down homeowners and speculators by direct handouts. The spectacle would have been memorable, whereas this bailout plan is merely tragic.

The Housing Bailout Pander Scheme wants the taxpayer to pay the bill as house buyers blunder into the sweetest deal ever in housing history. Housing greed and personal irresponsibility must be rewarded as the government takes over hundreds of high-risk subprime mortgages.

FrankenDodd and Co. do offer us the delusion that we would be “keeping people in their homes” but the rewards for simply walking away from a risky loan in a weak housing market are just too much to resist. The lenders will get screwed in this, too, as you look at the terms which they are expected to accept. One of the more ridiculous presumptions is that the at-risk homeowner must “certify that they haven’t defaulted intentionally or obtained the loan fraudulently.”

Sure, I’ll certify that. But I resent the insinuation that bank money could disappear into someone’s greedy pockets to be replaced by taxpayer money, responsibly earned from hard work. I’m shocked, Rick, shocked!....

Of course, this taxpayer rip-off has Barack Obama’s support. It’s only one of Obama’s rising tide of generous giveaways to voters. House Gifting is sort of a family tradition with Obama, judging by his acceptance of housing help himself in the purchase of his sweet Chicago crib.

Peak Oil Panic - Enter the Nuclear Power Industry

I "lost" my argument about "peak oil" that I was having with my internet friend. He ovewhelmed me with facts and figures which were taken from the EIA, an independent government agency set up to monitor energy policy. I was resistant to the panic reaction of "peak oil" more than I was resistant to the facts. In short, I believe that U.S. energy markets can "turn" before "peak oil" is reached.

Alternative fossil fuel extraction and conversion techniques are constantly being improved. While I support wind and solar, they are by no means the "answer". Wind and solar have been vastl subsized over the past decade or so. EIA figures state wind & solar produces less than 1% of total electricity, even after huge subsidies for many, many years. Megawatt hour costs (EIA) for solar: $24.34. Wind:$23.37

By contrast, coal and gas susbsidies are .44 and .67 cents respectively. Noone wants to face the news that electricity from nuclear ($1.59 subsidy) is the best way of turning away from Middle Eastern oil. Subsidies can bankrupt the economy just as much as "peak oil" can.

Deep Thoughts from the Campaign 2008 Trail

"When our troops go into battle, they serve no faction. They serve no party. They represent no race or region. They are simply Americans."

I've been accused of unfair play by a few of my readers. It is true that I have not given as much attention to Barack Obama's campaign statements and promises as I have given to Hillary Clinton or John McCain so I'd like to share with you the profound and ringing statement Mr. Obama made while campaigning in West Virginia. I'm astonished, reeling, and still trying to process things out. Nonetheless, I'd like to point out, in the interest of Catholicity, that Senator Obama feels it is just as patriotic to speak at an anti-war rally as it is to serve in the armed forces.

Who can deny that the Senator has set hearts a-quiver in some qarters with his risky speeches and policy positions. Risky speeches and policy positions. Risky speeches and policy positions. Risky speeches and.... oh, never mind! I'll never to able to perorate like Obama. Those cadences! Those pauses! Those rhetorical flourishes of repetition! They take my breath away...

Presidential Elections 2008: A Year of Firsts

Golly gee! What an election year! So many “firsts” could be realized that my heart goes pitter-patter when I think of the awesomeness of it all… It’s a progressive’s dream to see that a “person of color” could be the Democrat’s nominee for President of the United States. Leave it to the Democratic Party to lead the charge for “firsts!”

Don’t forget how famously fatuous and fickle is the Democratic Party, either. The first “first” idea was tossed about for several years in advance so that many people were virtually certain that Hillary Clinton would be the first female candidate who might seriously be elected President. Unfortunately, that “first” had to be put aside in favor of what many Democrats had come to believe was a more important and manly “first.” The hunger for Democratic “firsts” became so great that the old gray-haired men of the party began to feel that it could not be exposed to further risk. Supporting a Woman for President as a “first” took second place to supporting a “person of color”. Withdrawing support for Hillary Clinton, Jezebel of the generally successful Clinton years, was easy for the gray-haired men of the Democratic Party. The mold had already been prepared by the liberal media; all they had to do was to push Hillary into it and close the box. “The baggage!...the baggage!” they cried. And in the land of the Democratic Party, the cry was taken up and echoed from the hills: “The baggage!...the baggage!” Of course, it didn’t matter to anyone that the “New First” came to town with New Baggage. New Baggage is never quite the same thing as Old Baggage, according to the Graybeards of the Progressive “New Politics” of the Democratic Party.

The Republicans, too, have a “first” in John McCain. To me, it is a far more exciting “first” than any of the others. With a John McCain presidency, this will be the “first” time we have had a U.S. president who had been tortured. And another first: This will be the first time we’ve had a U.S. President who had been a P.O.W.! I suppose it hasn’t been brought up before because it is not the type of “first” which appeals to the touchy-feely people who have gotten control of the Democratic Party and their Obama Channel supporters. Being a tortured P.O.W does bring a unique perspective to the presidency, however. Being forced to sit and starve for long periods in isolation cells, group cells, small cells, punishment rooms, all the while badly in need of medical attention, does not in itself prove that McCain has the strength of character to face Volvo-driving Obama supporters in Birkenstocks at wine-and-cheese parties in the fall! Brie, Birkenstocks, and Volvos are a formidable challenge to political leadership. I’m not sure that John McCain could handle this. In light of this concern, it is understandable that many people continue to believe that John McCain is a frivolous candidate, seriously lacking a sober view of foreign policy. And who can blame such people when, across the aisle, you have a dynamic first-term Senator with a great voice who vows (that’s right...vows!) “change you can believe in?”

McCain Promises New, Softer Approach to Foreign Policy

A Time of Natural Catastrophe: China Earthquake

Large Quake Rattles China - WSJ.com 7.8 on the Richter is a giant earthquake. The death toll shocking, estimated at from 3000 to 5000 people and follows on the heels of the massive cycle which struck Burma (Myanmar). Clicking on the link will bring you to the Wall Street Journal early report of the disaster.

President of 57 States: Obama, Greatest President Ever!

Uhhh.... Did the entire Obama staff take the day off? Watch how cool and smooth the Senator from Illinois is as he campaigns in the 57 states of the union. He keeps right on and on and on..... Where is Mika Brezinski on this issue? Or her dad?

Peggy Noonan Passionata: A Plea to Save Democrats

Mixed Messages from the Wall Street Journal Political Gossip Columnist

Declarations - WSJ.com




What’s up with Peggy Noonan? Isn’t she the former Republican speechwriter, now turned political gossip columnist for the Wall Street Journal? Here’s what an online bio had to say about her:

In 1996, Noonan was one of ten historians and writers who contributed essays on the American presidency for the book, “Character Above All.” In 1995 she wrote and hosted a PBS series on the debate over American values. Noonan was a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986. In 1988 she was chief speechwriter for George Bush when he ran for the presidency.

Character above all? Yo, that poses a moralist’s dilemma. So you gotta’ wonder why, in her “Damsel in Distress” column in the Wall Street Journal of Saturday, May 10, the former CBS producer spews venom in the direction of Hillary Clinton as if she were on the short list of VP candidates on the Obama ticket. Okay, she doesn’t like Obama, either, but Noonan’s poison pen puts her into the circle of hell reserved for people like Ann Coulter who said she’d vote for Hillary Clinton if John McCain became the GOP presidential nominee.

Ya’ gotta’ wonder why Noonan would worry about “damage…to its (Dems) standard-bearer” and “who will save the Democratic Party in 2008. ” I’m sure her posturing in this piece is disingenuous, at best, and perhaps mixed with a little Southern Plantation Belle in a taboo flirtation with a house servant. Noonan makes no effort to disguise her hatred and contempt for Hillary and she’s playing to the worst elements in both major parties.

Hillary Hate Inc. has an agenda which extends from the dark corners of the left-liberal fascist mind to the excesses of the wing-nut Hillary bashing escapades of the 90s.

Look, it’s okay with me that many people don’t like Hillary for president; my point is that the level of vituperation directed at the woman is destructive to everyone in America. It’s a debasement of the national psyche.

It’s a clumsy, stumbling, rambling piece of snide race-baiting that Noonan is trying to pull off. She refers to the “Brazile-Begala smackdown” on CNN as an example of Hillary Clinton’s “racism.” Of course, Paul Begala is an idiot, and the “shape of (his) mouth” is not connected to “what the mouth says.” But if Noonan wants to apply the Begala association to Hillary, then the next paragraph should apply Jeremiah Wright to Obama but, of course, it doesn’t. That would take some “Character Above All,” and Noonan is more about about self-satisfaction, Clinton hating vitriol, journalistic solipsism than courage.

In Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Noonan engages in the colonial patronization of African-Americans with a big kiss-up to Donna Brazile. Brazile is quoted verbatim and at great length in the piece in what Noonan clearly considers a wonderful putdown of a____hole Begala. It’s a paen, a homage to a quaint little African-American culture, as Noonan sees it, but it’s lame, really lame, as lame as the throwback line she copped from an Obama flack: “Even Richard Nixon didn’t say ‘white”….even with the Southern Strategy.” Oooh, my heart’s a-twitter--brave stuff!

Real Estate Ramble: How the Candidates Roll

From Their House to the White House - WSJ.com

Obama Needs to Address Hamas Endorsement, Not McCain's Age

O-Bomber (zero-bomber) Obama once again overshoots the runway and crashes into the goalpost with his snippy-snide comments about John McCain “losing his bearings.” Apparently, Obama was in a snit about the fact that Hamas endorsed his candidacy. Instead of taking on the Hamas leader’s pro-Obama comments, Obama decides to distract people with a comment that runs counter to the phony above-it-all self-mirage he works so hard to effect. I don’t know why they call this guy an “orator” at all—his choice of a nautical term like “losing your bearings” is certain to call attention to the fact that he’s never been close to a Navy warship, the sea, a compass. Regarding the latter, it seems that Obama seems to have steered his own imaginary ship onto the rocks at Reverend Wright’s church, the second Obama shipwreck following upon the Antoin Rezko scandal in home base of Chicago, Cook County.

Will High Oil Prices Collapse the World Economy?

I got into a discussion about oil prices with another person on one of those ubiquitous internet forums, and like most such discussions, it led in all directions.

Among the points I made:
.

• The OPEC cartel-monopoly is a real factor in high prices OPEC is not the disparate, more competitive and loose confederation it was 10 years ago. It has better organization, better communication, and broad general consensus on getting maximum prices from its product, just as any other merchant would do.

• A second premise concerned conflict in Nigeria, and how that has fueled uncertainty in the markets.

• Mexico is having other problems affecting its production.

• The weak dollar means that investors prefer to put their money in commodities, particularly oil, and particularly in the futures market.

All of these things, I argued, had some impact on oil prices, too.

My “opponent” is a believer in the “Peak Oil” theory advanced in the 1970s. The “peak oil” argument has some validity, of course, but it is a phrase also designed to draw attention to one’s academic writing. There are billions of barrels of oil off the coast of Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama. There are unexplored oil deposits in Wyoming, ANWAR, and Canada.

The key difference is our “arguments” was that I was taking a short-term, practical view aligned with home budgets and my opponent took a “global” viewpoint. Within that context. I’d say my opponent had the moral high ground. Here’s the way he refuted my argument that dollar declines contributed to high oil prices:

"What's important to note is that during the time of dollar value appreciation, the cost of oil has also been going up. So, obviously, there's something else driving the high cost of oil. For example, since 2005, the cost of a barrel of oil has gone from 40 euros to 80 euros. In the same period the cost of oil in dollars has gone from 50 dollars to 122 dollars. So oil is up 100% in euros and 150% in dollars. So why are oil prices increasing? In my opinion, it is due to the fact that we've entered the age of Peak Oil. "

My internet buddy is right about one thing. We have an energy problem and we’ve got to do something about it. The media should flog anybody in government who has the slightest bit to do with energy policy. We have to do something or the doomsayers will be right. Should we build more nukes? Should we drill off the coasts? Should we drill in ANWAR? Should we put the Oil companies in leg irons or send them to the guillotine? Should we ban the use of petroleum based pesticides and fertilizer? Should we risk starvation by using corn and wheat for fuel?

Lots of questions, few answers.

What Fuels High Oil Prices?

Bubble Isn't Big Factor in Inflation - WSJ.com

Hot-Tempered McCain: Temper You Can Believe In

Angry Whiteboys Bill Clinton and John McCain have been harshly criticized for standing up for what they believe. Is there something wrong with that?




I have a great belly-laugh when I hear people sniping at John McCain or Bill Clinton or any other political leaders for a flash of anger here and there. There's plenty to be angry about, according to all sources, and you have only to cruise the poltical weblogs to see the virulent and angry level of American political discourse. By comparison, the mild fulminations of Bill Clinton are pale compared to the repressed and latent nastiness of Howard Dean and other fans of the Passive-Aggressive modus operandi.

John McCain turned on a priggish audience member who brought up the matter of McCain's "temper' in a town-hall meeting the other day. Here's a brief of what McCain said:

Look, I will confess to you, my friend, that I get angry," he told the man. "I get angry when I saw a guy named Abramoff that ripped off Native Americans for millions and millions and millions of dollars and people ended up, including him, in federal prison. I get angry when I see 233 million of your tax dollars going to an island, to a bridge to an island with 50 people on it. And that's your dollars. I get angry when I see corruption to the point where we have former members of Congress residing in federal prison."

And you know something? The American people are angry, too, and they're not gonna' take it any more! And they're mad and they've lost their temper, you know? These town-hall meetings, ask 'em if they're not mad. Ask 'em, ask 'em!"

So the alternative to real leadership is scripted leadership, the type where you put at least three seconds between each word and try to remember what your campaign manager told you to say. I know which one I prefer.

Florida Voters: Change That May End Up in Court (Again)

I think it’s going to be weird when they introduce Barack Obama at the Denver Democratic Convention as a potential presidential nominee. How will they put it?

“Ladies and gentlemen….Barack Obama….Democratic Party nominee for next president of the United States except for Florida and Michigan!”

Howard Dean seems to believe the problem will go away if he doesn’t mention it, yet it continues to grow. A friend in Florida who voted for Hillary Clinton tells me he’s very angry about the ban on his vote. If you knew that friend, you would know that almost nothing makes him angry. I haven’t seen him angry since basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia many years ago. Nor has anyone else. He’s the most amiable, agreeable, optimistic person you’d ever meet. For him to describe himself as “angry” is about as much an anomaly as seeing the Pope stamping his feet and shaking his fist at the Vatican. Whoa…what’s up there?

It’s always the same with Iowa and New Hamshire. It’s the one thing unchangeable, like the Rocky Mountains. If Barack Obama himself truly believed in “change you can believe in,” he’d advocate for the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegates. That would be change I could believe in. As things stand, Obama’s campaign slogan should be “change that will end up in court.”

States have rights and those rights supersede those of the private club called the Democratic Party. Already voters in Florida and Michigan have filed court legal challenges to the disenfranchisement of their votes. Legal battles stemming from the disenfranchisement of angry voters could undermine any nominee for many years to come, and are certain to handicap Democratic Party candidates in the fall. As an essentially independent voter in the closed primary state of Pennsylvania, I registered Democrat to vote for Hillary Clinton. I will certainly vote for John McCain in the fall should the Michigan and Florida Clinton voters be stripped of their constitutional rights.

Obama: Twenty Bucks Ain't Jack

First of all, Obama's people can't count. Knocking .20 cents off the price of gas at the pump would save far more than the $20.00 per month he claims. Secondly, he must have been beset by an early bout of Alzheimer's disease or some other dementia. Apparently, Obama has forgotten his vocal and voting support of killing the federal taxes on gasoline to cut "folks" a break at the pump.

Apparently, he's willing to cut the Teamster's Union a break but not the little people he claims to represent. And I wonder about his proposed tax increases. Would they cover the gift of Chicago real estate that Obama received from big indicted campaign contributor Antoin Rezko?

Will the MSM ever connect the dots between Cook County, Michelle's employment with Mayor Daley, Rezko, the Teamster's Union, and Bladjovic (sp)?

How do you spell "relief"?

What Will Our Friends In Europe Think of Us?

Programmed whining occurs when all of America seems to follow the script composed by professional whining champion Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, the Obama Channel. Olbermann wrings his hands and frets every time somebody from 'over the pond" casts a surly look in America's direction.

"Imagine what the Eurpeans will think of us!" opines Olbermann about anything and everything.

Olbermann got his marching orders from the Obama campaign again a couple of days ago when he blasted the Bush administration for high gasoline prices.

"What will the Europeans think of us?"

Well, they don't think much about Olbermann nor his whiny, anemic, and petulant voice. The Europeans believe Americans should suck it up and walk more or pay the price without bitching. After all, they're paying double the U.S. price and have been doing so for a long time.

Apparently, worrying about 'what the Europeans think of us" is a concept only applied to a list of PC items handed out to the MSM by the Obama campaign.

Guess Who I Bumped Into At The Supermarket?

This is from Wall Street Journal crime reporter Gary Fields. Gary points out an interesting phenomenon which you may have experienced. He researched the reasons for the increase in homicides and other violence on America's streets and comes up with an interesting theorem. There are so many people these days who go in an out of prison that prison life has essentially been exported to the streets. A simple faux pas like cutting in front of someone in the supermarket checkout line could get you killed. Unless you live in a glass bubble, the theory seems to fit what I've senn on the streets. Does the gangsta' life thrive in your suburb? Assemble your posse and check it out. Worth watching.

Primary 2008: North Carolina & Indiana - Call it a draw.

A very clever Hillary Clinton began her Indiana victory speech by using her opponent’s words to describe her Indiana win. Obama had predicted he’d win North Carolina, lose Pennsylvania, and that Indiana would be the tie-breaker. Welcome to the tie-breaker.

The Barackians will naturally try to minimize the Clinton Indiana victory as the Clintons will point to the heavy African American vote for Obama as a primary factor influencing outcome in North Carolina. Yet early polls showed Obama with a double-digit lead in Indiana, a state that borders Obama’s home state of Illinois. Hillary seems to have found her stride in closing the gap in the weeks before the primary and in winning the state. An interesting side note is that some of those urban border counties also went for Hillary, though by small margins.

In the overall race, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Morning Joe pointed to the strangeness of it all with his perception that demographic polls were holding up even if the actual voting polls didn’t. He finds it strange, as many of us do, that African-Americans vote for Obama, college students vote for Obama, blue-collars vote for Hillary, as do women and seniors, etc. It would be hilarious and comic if it weren’t so scary a highlight to history. It means that many Americans have a knee-jerk, reactive and paper-thin view of politics and the world condition.

The only ray of hope is that not everyone is marching to the conventional drumbeats. Some “strata” seem less capable than other groups of crossing ethnic lines than others—blacks, who made up one-third of the vote in NC, voted 92% in favor of Obama. Another conventional drumbeat has been set by the Democratic Party boss Howard Dean who is in the embarrassing position of trying to force Hillary out of the race. This unrelenting clandestine pressure is taking its toll of the electorate. The more pressure is applied, the more glaring the fact that Florida and Michigan have been disenfranchised by Howard Dean and his Merry Henchmen. Get it? Henchmen. I think there’s some kind of latent agenda there… I’m sure you’ll agree.

My quote of the day couldn’t be more eloquent than if I’d made it up myself. It comes from Hillary Clinton’s Indiana victory speech:

“It would be a little strange to have a nominee chosen by 48 states.”

Barack Obama Makes Promises to Teamster's Union

As I kid, I admired the late Jimmy Hoffa. He was tough, magnetic, powerful and routinely disobeyed authority of any sort....

Back in the day, everyone knew that the Teamster’s Union was controlled by the Central Region where Chicago Teamster Boss Jimmy Hoffa had his headquarters. Where is Hoffa these days? He hasn’t been seen around town for quite some time.

No matter, he’s been replaced by his son, Jimmy Hoffa, the second. Today’s teamster’s union may be a shadow of its former self, as some say, but there is a part of it that still lives in the shadow of organized crime. A Teamster official was kicked out of the union in 2006 for associating with a known mob personage.

I once worked on a Teamster’s loading dock where there was a particularly animated dock foreman, appropriately nicknamed “Stony”, who worked back-to-back twelve hour shifts with a thirty-eight tucked into his jacket. Stony was both likable and dangerous and he had lots of enemies. I once took a phone call intended for him. There had been much talk of a strike at the time and the usual menace of violence hung in the air.

“If you continue to harass my workers, I can no longer guarantee your safety,” the voice on the phone said.

That was the jist of it. Though I was in Pennsylvania, the call came from Ohio. The talk among the workers on the dock, rumor or not, was that the Teamsters were now under the sway of mobster Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano, who lived in Florida.

“Hey, wait a minute! I’m not ‘Stony’,” I cried.

For a long time now, the Teamster’s Union has had special government oversight to make sure elections were fair and to eliminate mob connections. Where is Jimmy Hoffa Sr. anyway?
But the Teamster’s haven’t enjoyed the increased scrutiny and they’ve lobbied many presidents and politicians to have it lifted, all without successful, until the union made a deal with “New Politics” practitioner Barack Obama.

As president, Obama couldn’t lift the oversight committee that lifts the Teamster monitoring process, but he did promise to see what he could do to put judges into place who could. That Teamster support was too tempting for Obama, just as the political support offered by Reverend Wright’s church was also tempting. Antoin Rezko’s offers of support were similarly accepted by the “new politics” practitioner, Barack Obama, who refuses to say “no,” or to abstain from relationships which call his judgment into question as they advance his “career.”

Michelle Obama's North Carolina Primary Speech

I was listening to Michelle Obama’s speech before a North Carolina group on Friday and, while there was nothing I could take issue with, there was also nothing I could take with me either. It was mediocre, humdrum, clichéd.

The one thing loud and clear in Michelle’s speech was that it was about “struggle.” Struggle can mean anything though. After all, who doesn’t believe they are struggling? Which explains the line “We must unite in our struggle.”… That may translate to: “We must unite in our struggle to make Barack Obama president.”

Mrs. Obama seemed to interpose two meanings for “struggle”: personal struggle and collective struggle. While speaking of collective struggle, she sounded a little bit like Reverend Wright or Barack Obama. Most likely, she meant struggle in a quasi- religious-political sense. That would be “struggle you can xerox.”
Stalin xeroxed struggle, and so did Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. When struggle is spoken of from the pulpit and couched in religious terms, as do the people who co-opt religion and turn it to their own political purposes, you can be sure that mass graves are sure to follow.


Michelle Obama described her own struggles as the child of a Democratic Party precinct captain and city water plant worker. Michelle Obama told the small crowd she lived in a Chicago South Shore city apartment with her parents and brother. Wikipedia describes the neighborhood as predominantly white, and recently becoming more “diverse.” She said she was exposed to a lot of things like dance and music at the local YMCA. Michelle said her father earned enough to put two kids through Princeton. It impressed me a great deal that a city water plant worker could save enough money to spend $35,000 per year for each of his two children at Princeton. That is certainly “struggle’—four years at $35 K per year comes to $280,000.00.

“You could do that back then,” said Michelle.

Really? Michelle Obama kept talking about the “high bar” which you can read as an extra impediment posed to African-Americans. I’d heard that phrase many times before. The analogy was that other Americans were subject to a suddenly imposed “high bar and how it was “almost impossible to raise a family on a single salary.”

I don’t agree with Mrs. Obama that life has gotten harder “since then.” I think that life has gotten significantly easier for each passing generation. I think I could easily best Mrs. Obama in telling tales of childhood poverty, if that is her point. Yet, I know that I had things much easier than my father’s generation.

During Michelle’s speech, I got a call from my widowed Aunt Sadie, 94 years old, and living alone. I’m fascinated by history. I like to talk to the old doll (my aunt) about life in the “old days” ; I am the unofficial keeper of the family history. Yesterday, I dropped off at her house a couple of tomato plants and basil. Yes, she’d got them into the ground with no trouble. While I’m talking to Aunt Sadie, I hear Michelle Obama in the background talking about her “struggle” and her “college loans” and Obama’s“community work” and how tough they had to be to accomplish all that.

At the same time, my aunt began to talk about her mother-in-law who had also been widowed and the five children she’d raised alone. Her husband and three other men had been blown up by dynamite in a slate quarry where they worked for about 50 cents a day. They’d set the dynamite charge to loosen a slate wall and didn’t make it out of the hole in time.

Another tragedy occurred to her soon after when the war came and her oldest son was blown up by a land mine in the Pacific just three days before he was due to be discharged. Angelina got a one-time payment from the VA because her oldest son was the chief part of her support system. She also got a job on a farm five miles a day picking fruits and vegetables. At the end of a days work, the farmer would give her some food to take home. In addition, she got a hundred pounds of flour each month from a government food program for war widows. I wonder if that qualifies as “struggle”? And I wondered did old Angelina complain to anyone that the “bar was raised” against her?

My grandfather worked on the railroad. He drove spikes and walked the tracks for miles each day and night. His brother-in-law, my great uncle Carmelo, was cut in half by a train at a railway crossing in the dead of a foggy night at a place called Forge Cut. My grandfather had to go himself in the middle of the night to pick up his remains and bring him home. He was proud he passed the naturalization exam and that he could write his name in English, something he’d do on a scrap of paper to amuse himself on a Sunday afternoon in summer.

My uncle Joe, who died last month, served in the Pacific during the same war. When set to come home, he narrowly missed the flight he was to take back to the states and that turned out to be a good thing. The plane crashed and everyone was killed. He spent his whole life in the Army and retired a Lieutenant Colonel. I remember my Uncle Joe for saying many things but one of the things I heard him say was:

“I never realized we were poor until I was thirty years old.”

Uncle Joe was the first of our family on either side to graduate from college. No one repeated that great endeavor until my own generation. My father left school after the 6th grade; my mother never graduated from high school either. Yet, my four siblings and I all graduated from college just one generation later. It’s the same with my cousins, all college graduates. Was that because we were “white” and had the advantage of a “low bar?” Perhaps it was because we didn’t have to struggle. Those terrible cold winter days when my brother and I had to pick coal off the railroad tracks to heat our hovel were probably just a figment of my imagination.

I guess you might have guessed that I’m not voting for Obama. It’s not because I’m “bitter” and it’s not because I cling to my guns and my bible. It’s not even that I don’t like Senator Obama and his wife. It’s just that I don’t believe them, not even for a little bit, nor in the things they say.

Bloomberg Gases About Gas Tax

Is there some kind of law that says that people who live in large mansions must wag their fingers at ordinary citizens and tell us why we need high gas prices to suppress our driving habits? That’s what New York Mayor Bloomberg was telling reporters today. Billionaire multi-corporate business owner and Mayor Bloomberg seemed outraged at the prospect of lifting the tax. With jowls quivering, he harrumphed his indignation with the proposal.

Bloomberg may have made millions at Solomon brothers and has so many other successful business enterprises including substantial holdings in media and finance, but somehow he hasn’t learned to count. Bloomberg sneeringly told reporters the gas tax suspension would only put thirty bucks into the pockets of struggling citizens. Then he worried about “infrastructure” so I guess he thinks the infrastructure is great right now with the gas tax in place. I guess he hasn’t driven to Brooklyn lately. Or maybe his Humvee or limo can handle the ditches in the road.

By any arithmetic, the lifting of gas taxes would save well over a hundred bucks even for people like me. I work at home and do less driving than the average person. Yeah, a hundred bucks may not be much, but when you factor in the increased price of foodstuffs caused by the price increase in gasoline and diesel, you get the message that Bloomberg has a somewhat cynical, imperial attitude toward people struggling with their bills. No wonder he supports Obama—birds of a feather. By the way, that's Obama's crib up there at the top, and the lot that Rezko gave him. I wonder how much oil it would take to heat that baby.

FOD Virus Panics Obama Campaign

Fear of Democracy Syndrome (FODS) is creating a dangerous epidemic which threatens to overwhelm Democrats often causing people to go blind, deaf and dumb. Panic stricken Democrats, wishing to avert the disease, have often moved to Pennsylvania where a certain “bitterness” in the DNA, combined with a firm grip on guns and bibles, has managed so far to thwart the spread of FODS.

In other states, deshabilles white liberal Obama supporters in Birkenstock sandals have been observed desperately seeking Brie in some neighborhoods, however. Police departments in major cities have noted an unusual number of illegally parked Volvos at residences where “Superdelegates” are said to reside. Joe Andrew was the latest guilt-ridden liberal to switch his support from Hillary to Obama after being the victim of repeated “wedgies” from DNC chairman Howard Dean.

Joe Andrew couldn’t man up to a courtesy phone call to Hillary Clinton before switching his superdelegate vote, but he did manage to suck up to Keith Olbermann of the Obama Channel.
Andrew told Olbermann he was first afflicted with the FOD virus while pressed between a sandwich board at an Obama campaign rally. Andrew noted on the show that “being pressed between an Obama sandwich board was not nearly as bad as being pressed between Representative James Clyburn and Chris Matthews at a cheese and wine party at the Pelosi mansion in San Franciso. Andrews told Olbermann how the dreaded FODS disease later spread to his liver and brain and, with Dean’s savage wedgie attacks fresh in his mind, he succumbed.

Howard Dean, a doctor, reports there is no known cure for FODS. He feels that voter quarantine is the best remedy right now to limit the damage sustained by the Donkey Party. Dean had several months ago ordered a quarantine of two states, Michigan and Florida, and is willing to sacrifice voters there for the “greater good.” Dean says that democracy doesn’t really need all of the states in the union voting; he feels that a democracy equivalent may be constructed from the opinions of key Obama supporters who long ago climbed out on a limb and the thousands-strong members of a suicide cult who have vowed to drown themselves in the sea around Cape Cod if the eighteen cent per gallon gasoline tax is even temporarily suspended.

Film at eleven…Stay tuned. Don’t touch that mouse!

Joe Andrew (DNC Party Worm) Voted Traitor of the Week

Joe Andrew gets my vote for this week’s Traitor of the Month. The former DNC Chairman Joe Andrew, a former Clinton Superdelegate who switched sides to support the Barackian Cause, was so panic-stricken and shaky in his decision that he couldn’t man up to a courtesy phone call. He told CNN that the courtesy of notifying Hillary of his decision would be like old-fashioned party politics. Huh? He must be thinking of Chicago and Rezko. Does Joe Andrew know where Cook County is? What a colossal ______hole!

Andrew tried to couch his announcement in noble terms but there is no dignifying that sort of treachery. He’s trying to shut down the Clinton campaign at a time when Hillary is gaining steam. The FOD syndrome afflicted the former DNC apparatchik while he was pressed between a sandwich board at an Obama campaign rally. Wait a minute—you don’t know about the FOD syndrome? That’s the acronym for Fear of Democracy, that characteristic of some donkey party hacks to distort the will of the people expressed through voting. Florida and Michigan get the idea, even if you don’t.

What Kind of Tax Incrrease Can We Serve You?

I wonder what mix of tax increases and tax cuts you’d prefer from your favorite presidential candidate?

Hillary Clinton joins John McCain in lifting the federal highway taxes on the gasoline. Most reports put the savings at about 18 cents per gallon. Barack Obama opposes the 3-month suspension of petrol taxes and accuses the other two candidates of playing to the polls. That’s rather ironic from a candidate who has consistently told his prospective voters what the polls tell him they want to hear. Pandering, is it? I understand Obama’s grasping for any straw which will get the media off the Rev. Wright debacle but, come on….the gas tax?

Over the road truckers would certain welcome the temporary suspension of the gasoline tax, that’s for sure. Eighteen cents a gallon over a lot of miles means a lot of cost cutting. I’d be happy to save 18 cents a gallon, too. Besides, Obama seems to be wrong about the amount of savings—I think it would be more than the $30.00 per month that Obama claims, even with self-limited driving. But even if the savings were only $30 bucks, what’s wrong with that? I’m not sure how heating oil is taxed but the doubling of heating oil prices ($3.70 per gallon) had a crippling effect.

It seems that Obama’s economic proposals are aimed at getting people used to paying higher taxes. It’s economic equality, Obama style. The fairest thing to do would be make everyone poorer. I love wind projects, too, but the presidency requires more than a wind project, isn’t it?

Here’s what Obama and other Donkey Party politicians are proposing to tax:

Excise or windfall profits on “Big Oil.” Few people will weep but mugging the oil companies doesn’t necessarily mean that Americans will get anything back from that except schadenfreude.

Hillary Clinton, at least, says she’ll use that tax to replace the highway money funds which will be lost by dropping the gas tax.

Obama wants to increase capital gains taxes and estate taxes and lift the top limit on social security taxes. Lots of Americans have small stock holdings these days. I made $800 bucks over 2 years on 500 shares of a small bank stock so naturally I’m looking forward to paying a higher capital gains tax if I sell it. Why should a big wall-streeter like me get away with a “windfall?”

Another pet project of the Obama brain trust is to let the Bush tax cuts expire. That would be a large federal tax increase which will strangle a limping economy. Clinton’s about in the middle on that issue, whereas John McCain wants to keep the tax cuts in place beyond the expiration date.

The only good news on the economic front is that Obama’s political trend line is moving opposite to bulk oil prices.